Rise From The Ashes
by BlackFaith
Summary: Faith's life consisted of one word - pain. In a new world, that word still dominates her soul. Will she ever break free from her own dark world, her hidden past ? It's been so long since she was truly happy, who'll be the one to bring it all back to her?
1. falling

A/N: Hey everyone! This is my first fanfic so please be kind. Reviews are of course more than welcome as is criticism so long as it¡¯s constructive and not simply because this isn¡¯t your kind of story as we all have different tastes so there¡¯s no need to be nasty about it.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, only Faith and the plot, so don¡¯t sue me as I am skint.

Chapter One ¨C Falling

Faith POV

I¡¯m standing on a jutting cliff top overlooking a monstrous whirlpool. It¡¯s quite a sight, if you¡¯re not afraid of heights, rushing waters or deafening waves. And I¡¯m not. I¡¯m not afraid of anything, I don¡¯t mean to boast, but if your life is just an endless torture show, like mine, then you wouldn¡¯t be afraid of anything either. 

Anyway, back to the whirlpool, many local folk say that it has mystical powers and that many disappearances have occurred around it. Well, the latter is true, but what¡¯s so mystical about disappearances? People were just too clumsy and fell into the whirlpool, silly folk and their silly superstitions, not to mention their silly accents. 

So here I am, standing on this barren cliff, looking down at the whirlpool, staring deep into the centre, trying to find the bottom, but my search is vain. Good. The deeper it is, the less chance of survival and survival is the last thing I want. A tear squirms its way out of my left eye, falling down my face leaving a wet trail on my cheek to shimmer in the fading sunlight. 

Evanescence¡¯s Bring Me To Life is blaring in my ears, it¡¯s my favorite song of all time and it portrays the very reason of my decision. The song is all about how we go through each day following the same old routine, doing what is expected of us just for the sake of it, and then you suddenly realize what you¡¯re missing. You realize that your soul is devoid of passion and your heart is just an empty shell, and you long for release from the prison you built yourself. That¡¯s how I feel and when you feel this way, you simply cannot find a reason to keep going.

I take my last look at the setting sun, slipping slowly beneath the horizon, and say a silent goodbye. The world is beautiful, but that alone is not enough to save me. I walk up to the very edge of the cliff, which is a great feat in itself as my feet are numb. My whole body is numb, as is my heart and the flood flowing through my veins (if indeed it is actually still flowing at all). I never thought it possible to feel numbness and unbearable pain at the same time, but I guess I proved myself wrong.

I take the fatal step and¡­

¡­Fall.

If anyone was watching my face closely, they would have seen me smile my first genuine smile for as long as I can remember. I¡¯m about to find my release, my freedom from myself, even if eternal sleep is the price to pay, I¡¯m willing to pay it. 

So I rejoice. Big mistake. I should have known not to celebrate too early, ah well, I will pay.

A/N: Well??? Whaddya think??? I know it¡¯s all a bit confusing at the moment, but it will all be explained very soon. Now it¡¯s time to REVIEW!!!


	2. hell in life

A/N: Only 1 review L, but I would like to thank the person that did review because it cave me encouragement and made me smile. Anyway, here¡¯s the next chappie.

Chapter Two ¨C Hell in Life

Faith¡¯s POV

Three years later, at the significant age of 21, I¡¯m still alive. Fuck. Day after day, it¡¯s the same old routine: serve, obey, smile and curtsey. I feel like a zombie, an empty shell with no soul and it¡¯s wasting me away from the inside. 

I¡¯m lying on my scratchy bed in my tiny box room (I swear our bathroom was bigger than this) that does not reflect my personality in any way, but it does reflect my mood perfectly ¨C drab, grey and wasted. So, here I am, staring at the ceiling, but not really seeing it at all, I think back to that fateful day, like I do every night and wallow in bitterness and self pity.

~ Flashback ~

As I crashed into the raging whirlpool, consciousness slowly slipped away as blackness clouded my vision. I was losing myself and only too happy to do so. But I woke up, I god damn woke up! Needless to say, this completely ruined the plan, but not only was the plan ruined, things were about to get worse, a whole lot worse. 

I was so angry and disappointed to have actually woken up (I knew it wasn¡¯t heaven because I don¡¯t believe in any of that stuff, however no offence to religious readers because those are just my opinions) that it took a few moments to take in my bizarre surroundings. 

I was on the bank of a small clear pool, what the hell happened to the whirlpool??? Anyway, apart from the great mystery of the disappearing whirlpool, everything else was a mystery too. It seemed that I was in the clearing of a forest, but how had I got from a cold barren cliff top overlooking a whirlpool to a forest of luscious green leaves? This was starting to give me a migraine. 

However, I was yanked out of my reverie as I found no less than 50 arrows pointing at my head. Arrows? Have I traveled back in time to the Middle Ages? Then I saw the men holding the bows and arrows, if indeed they were men, I had never seen such graceful men and with long blonde hair and pointy ears too! They looked like a bunch of barbies who had a sex change to me. 

One of them spoke; his deep masculine voice did not suit his feminine appearance. 

¡®Who are you and what business have you in Mirkwood?¡¯ 

Mirkwood? I¡¯m pretty good at geography, but never in all my life have I heard of a place called Mirkwood. And the language he used, ¡°What business have you?¡± he sounded like Robin Hood for god¡¯s sake. I thought it would be wise to answer, I may have welcomed death, but there are far more pleasant ways of dying than being pierced by an arrow from a gay looking ¡®man¡¯.

¡®I ummm,¡¯ it was only then that I realized I couldn¡¯t actually answer even if I did want to, because I myself had no idea what I was doing there. ¡®I ummm, I really don¡¯t have the shittiest how I got here. I don¡¯t even know where I am for heaven¡¯s sake¡¯ I know, I know, my language isn¡¯t exactly pure, but the guy didn¡¯t seem to know what shittiest meant anyway.

¡®This is Mirkwood like I said before and what do you mean you don¡¯t know how you got here? Did you drop out of the sky or something?¡¯ he and his fellow ¡®men¡¯ chuckled at the joke, but it was such a clich¨¦ and wasn¡¯t even funny. I gave them all weird looks.

¡®Actually, I rose out of the pool¡¯ This was the closest I could figure out to what had happened because all my clothes were wet, including my favorite knee high black leather boots. I thought I might as well die looking good. This time they didn¡¯t chuckle, they roared with laughter until some of them were rolling about on the floor. You¡¯d have thought they¡¯d never heard a joke before. Pathetic. Another one of them spoke, he looked slightly less gay than they one who spoke before him.

¡®Haha, rose out of the pool! Yeah and I¡¯m a dwarf!¡¯ I had no idea what he was talking about. Dwarves??? ¡®Ah well you don¡¯t look dangerous so we won¡¯t lock you up, but we can¡¯t let you go because you can¡¯t come up with a proper explanation as to why you¡¯re here so I guess you¡¯ll have to work as a servant.¡¯

¡®What?! Uh uh, no way in hell. I ain¡¯t serving bloody homosexual barbies. Anyway I thought I told you, I rose out of the pool.¡¯ The guy probably didn¡¯t have a clue was a homosexual barbie was, but he seemed to get angry anyway.

¡®You have two options: to work as a servant where you receive free lodgings and clothes or we¡¯ll lock you up and leave you to rot¡¯ So basically I didn¡¯t have two options at all.

~ End of flashback ~

So that¡¯s my story of how I¡¯ve come to be stuck in this hell hole. Free lodgings indeed, more like a barely furnished cardboard box. I turn onto my side and think of all the spoilt shallow excuses of ladies I had to serve today and fall asleep dreaming up of tortures for them. The next morning I actually wake up with a smile. 

A/N: REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!


	3. the inevitable

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, they are greatly appreciated. I¡¯m sorry it¡¯s taken so long to update, but my summer holidays have been kinda packed. Anyway here it is, it¡¯s called the inevitable because you can¡¯t have a legomance without the characters meeting can you?

Chapter 3 ¨C The Inevitable 

Legolas¡¯ POV

I like to walk outside at night under the innumerable stars. The fresh air is something many take for granted, I used to be one of the many, but after my experience in the Fellowship (the war was about 10 years ago), everything changed. I¡¯m no longer the young and foolish prince who chased women all around the palace, it¡¯s amazing how one can age so much in such a short period of time. However that isn¡¯t to say I¡¯ve given up the woman-hunt completely though (try picturing Leggie wiggling his eyebrows in a cheeky way then fall about laughing at the ridiculous mental image).

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, so here I am strolling aimlessly around the woods, taking in the¡­ well, woody scent. My ears prickle at a sound. It actually takes me several moments to recognize the sound as singing because never in all my life, about 3000 years, have I heard singing like this before. It¡¯s horrendous. Well I suppose I am exaggerating a bit, it¡¯s mostly in tune even though some of the notes are a bit dodgy, but for someone (namely me) who has never heard less than perfect singing in his life before, it definitely sounds horrendous. 

For some reason unfathomable to myself, I decide to seek out the source of this¡­song¡­if indeed you can call it a song. Its lyrics are rather peculiar too, not to mention depressing.

_I¡¯m tired of being what you want me to be_

_Feeling so faithless, lost under the surface_

_Don¡¯t know what you¡¯re expecting of me_

_Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes¡­_

(A/N: This is track 13, Numb, on the Linkin Park album Meteora, the album is astounding, get it NOW!)

Nobody sings of anything that is even distantly related to depression in Mirkwood. Nobody. Yet, someone obviously is, my curiosity has just about reached exploding point. It isn¡¯t hard to locate the source of the singing, after all I am an elf. I stop at the bottom of a large weeping willow. The singing stops. This puzzles me, no elf sings like that, yet no human could possibly detect my presence because I had not made a sound. HUH?

Faith¡¯s POV

I decided to go for a night stroll, like I have done every single night for the past three bloody torturous years. So there I was singing one of my favorite songs (the more angst in it the better) when I sense someone at the bottom of my tree. Oh freakin¡¯ great. My last place where I can find a shred of comfort away from those nincompoops at the palace has been discovered. What else can I expect really? I got a bit carried away with the emotion in the song, and when I get carried away, I tend to get..er..loud. 

I stop singing, well I can¡¯t really sing, but lets just call it singing for now, and jump down from my tree, might as well get this over and done with. If I¡¯m lucky I may find a new tree to weep in tonight, but then again, when have I ever been lucky???

Legolas¡¯ POV

A figure jumped out of the tree. If I had said ¡®flew¡¯ it may make it sound a bit more graceful, but it sure as hell wasn¡¯t a graceful jump. It landed with a thud that made me wince, you can¡¯t forget I have sensitive ears. It stood up. 

Well one thing¡¯s for sure, this ¡®it¡¯ is a she, but everything else about her is confusing. I don¡¯t normally get confused, but this little missy in front of me has caused me more confusion than when Gimli tried to come on to me (I always knew that dwarf was gay). She¡¯s quite tall for a human, she¡¯s definitely not an elf, with a jump like that? Are you kidding me? Anyway, I¡¯d say she¡¯s about 5¡¯9. Her skin is a peculiar colour, sort of olive (A/N: she¡¯s half American, half Chinese. I have strong views against racism so I decided to put some other race in the story apart from white people, no offence against white people, but other races just don¡¯t get enough say these days), it¡¯s slightly darker than Aragorn¡¯s and he¡¯s spent his whole life traveling around Middle-Earth. Huh? Her hair is a jet black and unusually short (it¡¯s about shoulder-length, but in Mirkwood, that¡¯s unusually short for a female, not to mention a male). Her eyes are a dull brown and rather small, her lips are a nice rosebud shape but so is everyone¡¯s in Mirkwood. Unlike the women at the palace and even the servants I have seen and acquainted, she is not thin, she is slim but more curvy than stick-like. Everything about her is just¡­. Wrong! (A/N: I hate reading about women with perfect bodies and a perfect face cos it¡¯s soooo BORING)

Oh and I haven¡¯t even mentioned her dress yet. I happen to know that servants (she must be a servant, what else would a human be doing in Mirkwood unless his name happens to be Aragorn and I doubt Aragorn has had a sex change, not when his wife is 4 months pregnant) are supplied with two plain gowns in the colour of their choice. Most servants chose white, and others chose light, ordinary pastel colours. Her dress, however, is black. It¡¯s unbelievable I never noticed her before.

She spoke.

¡®When you¡¯re done staring at me, your majesty¡¯

I jump. Her voice drips with sarcasm, like honeyed poison, but it¡¯s not the rudeness that surprises me most. It¡¯s the coldness of her words, colder than ice, and swimming in pain. It makes the points of my ears shiver.

Faith¡¯s POV 

Oh fucking fantastic. Of all the people it could have been to find me singing horribly out of tune, it had to be the bloody prince himself. OK this bloody prince is seriously hot, any warm-blooded girl would think so, not at all like the gay looking male-versions-of-barbies that captured me. But I¡¯ve seen and felt more than enough to know that a seriously fit body won¡¯t save me from drowning. I decide to have a little fun, the rules say you must be polite to all those who¡¯s status is higher than yours. But whoever said I followed the rulebook is seriously unstable. Sometimes, I guess life does have a point. So I say in my most chilling voice,

¡®When you¡¯re done staring at me, your majesty¡¯

He jumps! The royal, noble, seriously sexy, mighty prince of Mirkwood jumps! I bite the inside of my cheeks so hard to stop laughing (that would definitely ruin the effects) that I draw blood, ah well, it¡¯s so definitely worth it. 

And now for another little trick I use to freak people out. I empty my eyes of all emotion, it wasn¡¯t easy when I first did it, but there¡¯s nothing you can¡¯t achieve without practice. If you wanna know why I even bother trying to perfect a way of freaking people out, didn¡¯t you know I¡¯m psychotic? Anyway, so I empty my eyes of all emotion and they darken, it¡¯s amazing even if I do say so myself. They¡¯re no longer a dull ordinary brown, but almost black and so cold, it¡¯s enough to freak the most relaxed people. I draw more blood to stop myself laughing when I see his reaction.

Legolas¡¯ POV

She lowers her head in what I think is shame. Good, at least she has the decency to be ashamed. Then she looks up at me, straight at my eyes and I feel the blood freeze in my veins. Her eyes are no longer a dull brown, but they¡¯re so dark, almost black, and so cold. Lifeless and empty, like she has no soul. My eyes widen in shock and I can feel my jaw drop.

A slow smile, or rather smirk, fight its way onto her face, it seems as though she¡¯s been struggling with herself not to let it show. 

¡®Goodnight to you, my prince¡¯

And with that, she runs off. Just like her jump, her running isn¡¯t graceful either, but she sure is fast. Now I¡¯m left standing alone in the middle of the woods and there is one thought echoing around my brain. WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED???

A/N: REVIEW!!! (Does puppy dog eyes and looks ridiculously insane) PLEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAASE!!!


	4. introducing bumface and horseface

Chapter 4 ¨C Introducing Bumface and Horseface

Two weeks later

Faith¡¯s POV

Scrub, dust and tidy. I¡¯m having the best time of my life here. Cleaning Lady Kathlina¡¯s room whilst the wench herself is standing in the doorway, I swear if stares could kill I would have died a million and one times over. Why does she hate me so much? Oh yeah, now I remember, I treat her like the bitch that she is and her so called ¡®dignity¡¯ can¡¯t take it, what a pathetic excuse.

Well finally I¡¯m done, two hours of back breaking work while _she is burning a hole in the back of my head, not literally of course. DUH! But my misery ain¡¯t over yet, it¡¯s never over, but today just ain¡¯t my day. The next room to slave away in belongs to none other than Bumface, well, Lady Cordelia, but I reckon Bumface is a much more suitable name for her. She¡¯s even worse than Kathlina (I can¡¯t be bothered to think of a nickname for her, but I suppose Horseface would do her justice), if Bumface¡¯s stares could kill I wouldn¡¯t even be able to count the number of times I¡¯ve died._

In the glorious ten minutes before I have to endure a further two hours of torture, I report back to Martha, the head maid. Apparently I have a change in my schedule, I smile one of my rare smiles, you¡¯ve probably figure I don¡¯t smile much these days¡­ unless I¡¯m making fun of the stuck up snobby nobles. 

But when I hear what the change in my schedule is, that smile evaporates quicker than water in the Sahara desert. I have to clean the bloody prince¡¯s room!!! The same prince I freaked out, the same prince I mocked, the same prince that heard my disastrous singing, the same prince I have a hopeless crush on but dislikes anyway (like I said in the last chap, I¡¯m a psycho), _and to top it all, I bet his room is huge, definitely bigger than Bumface¡¯s. I mean after all, he is the BLOODY PRINCE! It¡¯s gonna take me at least 3 hours to clean. Fan-flipping-tastic. And just in case you have the IQ of Gimli the dwarf, I¡¯m being sarcastic here. I just hope to god that he won¡¯t actually be there, you never know, I might get lucky, after all there¡¯s a first time for everything. Famous last words._

Legolas¡¯ POV

I pace around the room aimlessly in my bathrobe, I¡¯ve been up for ages and I haven¡¯t had a bath, but I find that a bathrobe is a lot more comfortable than tight leggings, especially on¡­you know¡­_that_ particular part. Suddenly I remember that Sereena is coming in to clean today and she¡¯s due in precisely 1 minute. That is not enough time to get changed, even for a man, well elf, and I have no desire for her to catch me half naked. But I¡¯m not unduly worried, she¡¯s seen my wondering around like a mindless idiot in my bathrobe before, so all¡¯s well. Yeah right.

I hear a knock on my door, I walk towards it and open it.

¡®Ah, Sereena you¡¯re h-¡¯

I was about to say ¡®Ah Sereena you¡¯re here¡¯, but the words disappear down the back of my throat, for it¡¯s not Sereena that stands in my doorway wearing a scowl that tells me exactly how much she wants to be here, it¡¯s the freaky-eyed girl. Since I don¡¯t know her name, that¡¯s what I¡¯ll call her until I learn her name. (A/N: He¡¯s gonna learn her name pretty soon cos I¡¯m too lazy to keep typing out freaky-eyed girl all the time. Tehehe). I¡¯m about to ask her what she¡¯s doing here and where the heck is Sereena, but she seems to read my mind because she answers my unspoken question in a bored and calm but undeniably angry voice,

¡®Apparently Sereena is ill, so guess who has the bloody honor of taking her place,¡¯ she give a mocking curtsey and continues, ¡®Moi. And believe me your majesty I take no more pleasure in being here than you do so I¡¯d like to just get this over and done with.¡¯

I see that her manners have improved sooo much since our last meeting. I roll my eyes and step aside, over and done with? I wish.

Faith¡¯s POV

Hmm. So much for him not being there then, and what¡¯s more, dressed in a bathrobe. A mighty expensive bathrobe I might add, royal blue silk. Even in my life before Middle-Earth, I always had a problem with the rich and famous, not that I¡¯d met any, but it really bugged me how they had so much money, but just wasted it all on their own selfish depthless needs. I¡¯m not saying they should give it _all to charity, no one is selfless, even I like to treat myself now and then, but they used to spend like thousands of pounds on ONE PAIR OF SHOES! Bloody ridiculous. It really made my blood boil to watch the news and see the starving children and the fatigued mothers and then I¡¯d remember all the money that some president or other invests in war, the irony really sucks._

Well what can I do? So I just stroll in the room (and I was right, it is humongous) and start cleaning. Thankfully he doesn¡¯t stand there staring at me like Horseface, but what he does do is ask me stupid questions. I think I would have preferred the staring. 

¡®So what¡¯s your name?¡¯

¡®Faith¡¯ I¡¯m not up to striking conversation with the almighty prince so I think I¡¯ll keep my answers one-worded when possible.

¡®How long have you been working here?¡¯

This is turning into a survey! It¡¯s only a question I know, but I can¡¯t help getting angry,

¡®Work? You call this work? Slaving away day after day (A/N: I made a rhyme!) whilst all I get in return is stale bread and a box to live in? Well if that¡¯s your definition of work, then 3 years your highness¡¯ 

So much for keeping my answers one-worded, huh.

¡®What is your problem? How dare you be so rude?¡¯ 

Oooh, he¡¯s getting angry now, I may be psychotic not to mention suicidal, but I have the gift of being the most annoying prick in the world. Haha. Not even the prince is immune, maybe that change in my schedule wasn¡¯t so bad after all.

¡®Problem? Oh I have no problem, well maybe a slightly mental one but nothing serious, and I dare to be rude because whatever you do to me, whatever punishment I may receive, I¡¯ve been through worse.¡¯

Oh great, I should have kept my mouth shut, while this statement is definitely true, he¡¯s gonna start questioning about my past now and that is something I do not wish to recall at all costs. It may have been the years ago but the memories are still as fresh as ever, they still sting like open wounds and they are forever haunting my dreams.

¡®We could leave you to rot in a prison cell, and you¡¯d be fine with that would you?¡¯

I breathe a sigh of relief, no questions thank god. 

¡®I¡¯m rotting away everyday anyway so I doubt I¡¯d notice the difference.¡¯

I get no reply to this, the prince just heaves a sigh and mumbles something that sounds suspiciously like ¡®Oh I give up¡¯. Wow, I knew I was good, but now I know I¡¯m brilliant!

Legolas¡¯ POV

This girl, Faith, she is completely impossible, but she¡¯s lit my curiosity candle. It¡¯s clear she¡¯s not afraid of punishment, I wonder what could have happened in her past. But just as I¡¯m about to question her I catch a glimpse of her eyes, they¡¯re so very different from the blank ones she treated me to two weeks ago, this time there¡¯s a storm of raging emotions in them and the biggest one, the one at the heart of the storm, is pain, raw undiluted pain. Even though she¡¯s shown me nothing but rudeness and sarcasm, I feel myself softening, so I just sigh and leave her be. 

But now that flame of curiosity is shining, it refuses to be put out, I¡¯m gonna find out about her past some day. I¡¯m gonna find out the reason she¡¯s so rude, the reason she hurts, I¡¯m gonna find out and I¡¯m gonna help her. I can¡¯t believe this, one glimpse of those eyes and I¡¯ve made a resolution to achieve the impossible for I have a feeling that no one has broken her defenses yet, but I know that if I don¡¯t, those eyes will haunt me forever. She may not know it, but that blasted girl¡¯s set me a death trap.

REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!! 


	5. poetry by candlelight

A/N: Thank you for all your reviews, they¡¯re really greatly appreciated.

Chapter 5 ¨C Poetry By Candlelight 

Faith¡¯s POV

Guess how long it took me to clean the blasted ¡®royal chambers¡¯. _Five freaking bloody tortuous hours! I can hardly walk now, my muscles have all tensed up. What I really need now is to get some fresh air, but the damn prince has dug up my ghosts of the past, I mean it¡¯s not like they were ever truly buried, but I¡¯ve managed to keep them at bay. Until now. So although the fresh air will do me a mountain of good, I head for the library instead._

Now strictly speaking, being a servant and all, I¡¯m not allowed to set ¡®one filthy unworthy foot¡¯ in the library, to quote the delightful Bumface when I first went in there and wasn¡¯t aware of the rule. What that bitch was doing in the library is unfathomable to me since all she ever does is prance around whilst spying on the prince. I sigh, these ¡®faces¡¯ are all the same. 

Anyway, it¡¯s gone past midnight now and I¡¯m willing to bet my choker no one¡¯s in there. My choker¡¯s my most prized possession, it was a gift to me from my best friend, you¡¯re probably wondering why the hell I tried to commit suicide when I had a best friend, but the key word there is _had._ Great. More painful memories being dug up. But pushing the memories aside, it¡¯s a beautiful choker, a heart carved out of black marble hanging off a ribbon of black satin. 

A tear wriggles its way out of the corner of my eye. It¡¯s amazing to think that I had a life once, I was happy once, but it¡¯s all gone now, everything good and warm and filled with love has been flushed out of me, now I¡¯m just empty, hollow and it hurts. It hurts like hell. When I¡¯m like I am now, being torn apart by my past that I try so hard to forget, I like to write poetry, I¡¯ve always loved poetry, how mere words can express so much emotion, and I find it helps dull the pain a bit, if only for a while. This is why I¡¯m heading for the library, my room has no desk or chair, not that there¡¯s space for either of them anyway.

I¡¯ve been in the library several times before, but I never fail to be astounded by its sheer size and elegance. Row after row of books, thick dusty volume, in fact everything is dusty, but that just adds to the wonder and magic of it all, it feels like I¡¯ve stepped into a long forgotten realm. After about half a minute of staring around like a mindless idiot, I head for a table at the back, just in case any late night wonderers should stroll in, and light an already half-melted candle. I take out my old tattered scrap book and a biro that happened to be in my jacket pocket when I jumped and begin to write.

Legolas¡¯ POV

Just like me to act before I think. I made a promise to myself to help Faith, but I haven¡¯t got the slightest clue where to start. Martha refuses to give out ¡®confidential information¡¯ and there are a heck of a lot of servants in the palace. Frustrated with myself, I head for the library. I¡¯ve always had a passion for reading, I still enjoy the magic stories can bring even when I¡¯m nearly 3000 years old, it helps me to escape my troubles in the real world. 

I don¡¯t expect anyone to be there, it has gone midnight and most people will be lying in there beds asleep, untroubled. Me? I¡¯m not most people and being a prince, trouble seems to feed off me. I enter the library and take in a deep breath, I love that smell of dust and burning candles. Wait a minute, burning candles? That must mean someone¡¯s here. I scan the room cautiously and who should I find but the cause of my troubles. Yep, Faith is bent low, writing, or rather scribbling frantically in a tattered old note book.

I¡¯m a bit stunned to be honest, I have spent hours trying to find this girl and of the places she could be, I find her when I¡¯m not even looking. Weird. Well, being a servant, she¡¯s not actually allowed in the library, but I don¡¯t care, I¡¯m just glad I found her. 

Faith¡¯s POV

I¡¯ve written about 4 lines of my poem, I¡¯ve decided to call it ¡®Cursed¡¯ this is what I¡¯ve got so far:

_I¡¯m dying, slowly dying_

_Drowning in the endless ocean of my tears_

_I¡¯m bleeding, so badly bleeding_

_Wounds opened by the pieces of my broken heart_

(A/N: I¡¯m not very good at poetry, but I thought I¡¯d give it a go)

As I¡¯m just about to write the next line (I don¡¯t ¡®contemplate¡¯ about what to write, my poems just come from the heart, they tend to make bad poetry but are heartfelt and that¡¯s what matters) I hear an intake of breath. Oh shit, who the hell is in the library at this hour? Apart from me of course, but I have a valid excuse. I look up for a nanosecond, I don¡¯t need any longer to recognize the golden tresses and the sapphire eyes, yep it¡¯s the damn prince.

Two encounters in one day? If it wasn¡¯t for the fact I don¡¯t believe in fate, I might think that fate pushed us together. I almost laugh out loud at this idea, it¡¯s so ludicrous ¨C a prince and a servant girl with a mental problem and a broken heart, never in a million years. I can¡¯t see any means of escape so I just lower my head and keep scribbling, by the time he walks over to my table, I have written the rest of my poem, it¡¯s hardly legible, but it¡¯s finished.

_I¡¯m hurting, everyday hurting_

_Even time cannot heal a dying soul_

_I¡¯m doomed_

_Doomed to a life of memories and haunted dreams_

_I¡¯m falling, forever falling_

_I¡¯m gone but no I will not be missed_

Legolas¡¯ POV

I walk over to her table, right at the back. She looks intriguing with the candlelight washing over her and her dark hair covering her face like a veil, not beautiful but breath taking all the same. 

¡®Faith?¡¯

She looks up at me, but not before closing her book that she was writing in.

¡®Your highness¡¯

I¡¯m surprised to find that her voice has lost all trace of sarcasm and rudeness. Instead, she sounds weary and hopeless. I was right in thinking that she is not rude by nature, but something has happened in her past that has made her into what she is today ¨C not altogether unpleasant, but melancholy and depressed. The little flame of curiosity she lit earlier today is fast growing into a wild fire.

¡®Can I see what you wrote?¡¯

She hesitates, but then says,

¡®Why not?¡¯

Gently she opens her book, caressing the pages with her fingertips, for one fleeting moment I wish that I¡¯m the book and she¡¯s caressing me, then I feel mortified at the thought and unconsciously blush. She finds the page and hands the book over.

Faith¡¯s POV

Why does he want to see my poem? But I guess I should let him, after all, I¡¯ve been nothing but rude to him and he¡¯s still being nice. As I flick through the pages of my book, I notice him blushing slightly, hmm, interesting, I wonder what he¡¯s blushing about. I find the page and hand the book to him. 

I study his face closely to see his reaction. His face doesn¡¯t move a muscle, but I can see his eyes changing, it¡¯s a though a storm has occurred in the oceans that are his eyes, oh god, please tell me I didn¡¯t think such a poetic not to mention rather soppy thought about the prince. Oh god, I did!

He hands the book back to me. I expect him to say something like what a rubbish poem it is or how too much depression is not good for me, but he surprises me by saying two simple words in a voice so soft, almost a whisper, his lips hardly moving at all,

¡®I¡¯m sorry¡¯

I¡¯m stunned. There¡¯s really more to this prince than meets the eye, he¡¯s not like the other nobles, he¡¯s different and I feel something for him that I haven¡¯t felt for anyone for a long time. I feel respect.

A/N: Bit of a rubbish ending, but I felt it was the right time to end it, not to mention my arms are getting tired from writing. Please review!!!


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